There are a myriad of books that claim to add time to your day, without compromising the quality or taste of the meal. Ones that suggest that there is an ‘easy’ solution to eating well. These come in all manner of styles, slow cooking, salads, on-the-go food, the list goes on. So it was with some trepidation that these got tried out in the kitchen.
Without doubt, these recipes - taken from the highly successful podcast of the same name - are some of the easiest and most delicious recipes tried in recent years (and that includes a lot of reviewed cookbooks!). Ease wise, they live up to the name ‘Real World Dinner Solutions for The Exhausted’ as they allowed simple and straightforward ingredients mixed together in really inspiring ways to create delicious outcomes. The fact that we now need a cookbook for ‘the exhausted’ is a worrying premise and perhaps a damning indictment on our pace of modern life - but that’s a digression for another time.
Mentioning the ingredients already, it should be noted that this book really does use easily sourced ingredients. No need to hunt in those obscure, dimly-lit aisles of the sauce section in some little known international supermarket to find the stuff you want. Instead, these were all readily available at the major supermarket chains up the road. This also meant that the cost of the recipes was not inaccessible, finally.
The oven risotto was a genuinely easy meal that saved all that stirring, and the Best-Ever Bolognese really set itself up for failure. Any recipe claiming to be the ‘best-ever’ should, in general, think again. But this really was quite literally the best, ever. So, perhaps there is a first for everything.
With the cost of living concerns raging throughout the country (and the world, to be fair) it’s vital that we make enough time for family, and that comes through food. This is a perfect book for those who are feeling overwhelmed by life, or underwhelmed by their own current dinner-making prowess. It really does do what it says on the cover, and provides solutions to real world problems with cooking.
Overall, this is a really helpful, and delicious way to bring cooking back into vogue, no matter your lifestyle. Clever hacks, tips and tricks really do make a heck of a lot of difference. And, without question, make the wings.
Reviewer: Chris Reed
Murdoch Books